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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29380767">Unconditional</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdLittleStories/pseuds/WeirdLittleStories'>WeirdLittleStories</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Because it's not Star Trek unless there's a little bit of a message somewhere, Gen, Kirk is warmed by all the love on his ship, Romantic Fluff, There's a little lesson for McCoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:00:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,073</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29380767</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdLittleStories/pseuds/WeirdLittleStories</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Valentine's Day on the <i>Enterprise,</i> and Kirk is warmed by all of the love on his ship.  </p><p>(Couples are Kirk/Spock, Scotty/Uhura, Rand/Chapel, and Sulu/Chekov, but there's nothing graphic; it's only love.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James T. Kirk/Spock, Other couples just to give a Valentine's air to the ship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unconditional</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/><p>
  <b>Unconditional<br/>
by Weird Little Stories</b>
</p><p> </p><p>It was Valentine's Day on the <em>Enterprise,</em> and Jim Kirk enjoyed watching his crew celebrate the holiday. As soon as alpha shift was over and the alpha shift crew had retired to the mess hall for dinner, it began.<br/>
<br/>
Although most people on Earth celebrated Valentine's Day privately, it had become the tradition in Starfleet to hold such celebrations at least semi-publicly, to make it clear that the regulations against fraternization between those more than one step apart in rank were being followed.<br/>
<br/>
Although Kirk and Spock were lovers, Spock was still on the bridge, taking the conn so that the humans could celebrate their holiday. Since McCoy didn't have a romantic partner at the moment, he and Kirk ate together while many of the crew split off into couples.<br/>
<br/>
Once Uhura and Scotty had gotten their meals from the food synthesizers and taken seats, the whole room watched as Scotty presented Uhura with a pair of diamond earrings, and said, "Diamonds are the closest I could get to stars, to match the star that is your name, the stars in your eyes, and the stars in my heart when I think of you."<br/>
<br/>
Kirk hadn't known that Scotty had that sort of eloquence in him, then he saw Nurse Chapel at a nearby table, watching the scene with more than casual interest, and he knew who had helped Scotty turn his very real love into words.<br/>
<br/>
Once Uhura had finished kissing Scotty and thanking him for the earrings, Christine Chapel turned to Janice Rand and gave her a small bottle.<br/>
<br/>
"My favorite perfume!" Janice said. "But how did you find it way out here?"<br/>
<br/>
Christine winked at Kirk. "I have powerful friends" was all she said.<br/>
<br/>
Janice laughed. "Well, I didn't think to rely on my powerful friends, but I hope you'll like this, anyway," she said, handing Christine a box.<br/>
<br/>
Christine opened the box to reveal a set of beautiful but skimpy lingerie and blushed when several people in the room responded with wolf whistles. She looked at Janice. "Is this a present for me, or a present for you?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes!" Janice replied, and Kirk joined in when everyone laughed.<br/>
<br/>
Christine chuckled, shook her head, and kissed Janice. "Just you wait until later!"<br/>
<br/>
Kirk tried not to imagine what "later" might look like and was glad for the distraction when Uhura finished her dinner, stood up, and began to sing. She didn't sing to the room in general, as she usually did, but directly to Scotty. She had clearly composed the song herself, since it was all about him and all about how wonderful she thought he was, and the sentimental Scotsman had tears in his eyes by the time the song was done. Kirk was feeling slightly misty, himself, and the song wasn't even <em>about</em> him; he could only imagine how moved Scotty must be.<br/>
<br/>
Sulu and Chekov were seated together at a small table, and Kirk watched as Chekov reached under the table and produced a plant with large blue leaves, each leaf covered by tiny golden flowers.<br/>
<br/>
Kirk smiled at Sulu's gasp of surprise and delight. "An Arcturan Glowleaf! They're one of the rarest plants out there."<br/>
<br/>
Chekov beamed. "Which is why I knew you'd like it."<br/>
<br/>
Sulu took his eyes off of the plant long enough to gaze adoringly at Chekov and began to talk excitedly about the special care the plant required and how he could rig up the lights in the botany lab to give it what it needed.<br/>
<br/>
Kirk enjoyed the satisfied smile on Chekov's face — it had been worth it to help him navigate the paperwork required to bring a new plant on board — then watched as Chekov was excited in turn when Sulu presented him with a personalized set of matryoshkas.<br/>
<br/>
Most Russian nesting dolls were simply a series of stylized peasant women, but in <em>this</em> set, the largest doll was painted to look like Kirk himself, the second doll like Mr. Spock, and so on, until the penultimate doll was painted to look like Sulu, and the smallest doll of the series was painted to resemble Chekov himself.<br/>
<br/>
Chekov was overwhelmed by this to the point that he completely lost his ability to speak Standard and exclaimed entirely in Russian. While the words weren't clear, his joy and pleasure were, and Sulu's answering smile lit up the room.<br/>
<br/>
The festivities continued after dinner, as the tables were pushed to the sides of the room, and the various couples danced to recorded music. Kirk watched the dancing with a satisfied smile, pleased that so many of his crew had found someone to love on their long journey among the stars.<br/>
<br/>
He had a good crew — no, make that an EXCELLENT crew — and while he knew they all enjoyed their work, humans were social creatures, and they needed more than just work, no matter how satisfying. He, himself, had not only work to which he was uniquely suited, but the love of the finest being it had ever been his privilege to meet, and his generous and gregarious soul wanted the same for all his crew. Perhaps before <em>next </em> Valentine's Day, he could find someone for Bones.<br/>
<br/>
At the end of the festivities, McCoy turned to Kirk. "You've been smiling all day while <em>other</em> people made grand gestures for Valentine's Day, but I haven't seen the walking computer do anything for <em>you."</em><br/>
<br/>
Kirk shook his head. "Don't you know what love is, Bones? When you love someone — REALLY love someone — you love them <em><b>the way they are</b></em>. Spock's a Vulcan, and I wouldn't change that about him; he's perfect exactly as he is."<br/>
<br/>
He looked sternly at McCoy. "Asking a Vulcan to express emotion in public is like asking him to pee his pants in public. I would never ask that of him, and no one who loves him should even <em>think</em> of asking that of him.<br/>
<br/>
McCoy grimaced. "I guess that's why Jocelyn and I didn't last. We weren't able to love each other the way we were; we kept trying to change each other."<br/>
<br/>
He looked shrewdly at Kirk. "You're not just in the center chair because you look so good on the recruiting posters, are you?"<br/>
<br/>
Kirk smiled. "Spock says my mind is my best feature, but then, he loves ME exactly the way I am, too."<br/>
<br/>
McCoy sighed. "We should all be so lucky!"<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>1.  Here's hoping you are feeling both lucky and well-loved this Valentine's Day, or if not, that the year to come will bring you whatever you desire.</p><p>2.  Loving someone as they are doesn't mean that there's no need for negotiation or compromise in a relationship; of course couples need to try to accommodate one another in the little things.  But if there's a BIG thing that a person wants to change about their partner, that's usually a sign that what they need is a different partner.  And if your partner wants to change something about YOU that's a big part of who you are, then perhaps you need a different partner.</p><p>When I was a graduate student in the Psychology department at Cornell, a professor there named Ron Mack used to tell his students that it was a mistake to trade self-respect for love, because it was always a bad bargain.  And he was right.  I wish I could hand that knowledge to every young person going out into the world — sure, make compromises about the little things, but never, NEVER trade your self-respect for love.</p><p>Of course, it helps that Kirk doesn't need Spock to make romantic gestures, not only because he loves Spock the way he is but also because he can feel Spock's love for him directly, during mind melds.  Romantic gestures are mostly a way for us poor, mind-blind humans to show one another what's in our hearts, but if a person can mind meld, all of that would be superfluous, wouldn't it, because a telepath could simply SHOW their partner what's in their heart.  I've already written <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/17769173">another story</a> about that, though, so I didn't feel the need to address it in THIS one. :-)</p><p>3.  Most readers of TOS fan fiction know that Dorothy Fontana planned to give McCoy an ex-wife named Jocelyn and a daughter named Joanna during Season 3 but was foiled by Fred Freiburger, who didn't understand that McCoy was supposed to be about a decade older than Kirk and thought he was Kirk's contemporary.  (Since DeForest Kelley was eleven years older than William Shatner, it was surprising that Freiburger couldn't just tell by looking at them.)  So TOS McCoy never got his ex-wife and daughter in TOS canon, though the writers of the reboot movies eventually ensured that Kelvin-universe McCoy would have the divorce in his past that TOS McCoy was supposed to have all along.</p><p>4.  I needed the romantic gestures for Valentine's Day to happen publicly, and doing it to make sure the regulations about fraternization were being followed was a reason why that might happen.  Of course, we don't actually know what the rules about fraternization were in Starfleet during the TOS era.  It's clear that SOME fraternization is permitted, since two officers are about to marry one another in "Balance of Terror."  It's also clear that some kinds of fraternization are NOT permitted, since Kirk tells Spock during "The Naked Time" that the captain is not supposed to notice how beautiful his yeoman is.</p><p>Since Tomlinson (the groom) had one stripe on his sleeve and Martine (the bride) had none, I'm guessing that Tomlinson was a lieutenant and Martine an ensign.  The US Navy has a rank of lieutenant junior grade in between ensign and lieutenant, but we only saw that rank once in TOS, in a very early episode, which suggests that the producers decided to drop that rank and have only ensigns and lieutenants.  So I'm assuming that in the special world of Starfleet, ensign and lieutenant are one step apart in rank.  I try to be consistent within my own little head canon of TOS. :-)</p><p>5.  Ms. Uhura and Mr. Scott are shown to have a romantic interest in one another in <i>Star Trek V:  The Final Frontier.</i>  Although I vastly prefer the era of the TV show to the era of the movies, I wanted Uhura to have a romantic relationship for this story, and since Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were all otherwise occupied, I decided to go with movie canon for Ms. Uhura's partner.</p><p>6.  We learn in "Charlie X" that Janice Rand's favorite perfume is not readily available on the ship, so it makes a good gift.</p><p>7.  I have a chronic illness that leaves me non-functional most of the time, which means that I am not always able to reply to comments. I do read them all with great attention, though, and I do <b><span class="u">cherish</span></b> every single one of them, even when my health doesn't permit me to reply. I apologize for being so limited in what I can do.</p><p>8. I don't own Star Trek, and I make no money from the stories I write; everything here is just fans playing in the sandbox. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Star Trek owns ME. :-)</p><p>9. Thanks for reading! If you liked anything about this story, I'd love to hear what you enjoyed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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